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Liverpool fan club apologizes to Kenmore Square bar for getting it in hot water with police, licensing board

For local fans of Liverpool FC, it was the chance of a lifetime: To watch their soccer heroes in a match at Fenway Park. Unfortunately for An Tua Nua, a march of Liverpool supporters from Kenmore Square to Fenway on July 25 proved far more successful than its organizers had hoped, leading a BPD detective to write the place up and landing it before the Boston Licensing Board earlier this week.

Tony O'Brien, a Boston EMT and Liverpool native who organized the march, said he was shocked when several hundred people showed up - he'd been expecting maybe 75 or so, as had shown up for a similar march the week before in Toronto and the week after in Baltimore.

An Tua Nua didn't have anything to do with the march, he told the licensing board. "The meeting point happened to be outside An Tua Nua," because it was a prominent place not too far from Fenway, he said.

But as Liverpool supporters flooded the square, BPD Det. Daniel Keeler (yes, that Keeler) arrived. As the Globe reports:

As the fans poured out of the bar, intoxicated by draught specials and the promise of summer soccer down the street, an out-of-uniform police officer, infuriated with the ruckus, tried to shut down the bar. O'Brien talked to him, explained the fandom filling the streets, told him they were preparing to take the show on the road. The officer relented, and drove away before the procession began.

Only he must've returned, because he issued a citation to the bar, which led to Tuesday's hearing.

"I feel terrible," O'Brien said, apologizing to the bar's owner and the licensing board. "I'm very sorry." He said that, as an EMT, he began to have some concerns about the large size of the crowd himself and began to try to get people to walk to Fenway.

The board yesterday found An Tua Nua faultless, issuing a "no violation" ruling.

Walked by this party when it happened -- lots of people singing (tune of "Yellow Submarine," of course), chanting, wearing their colors, and there were even bagpipers playing around the corner in the alley. It looked like an absolute blast, so in Boston, naturally, that was grounds for further investigation.

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